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Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

I just purchased a Redcat Volcano Exp Pro and straight out of the box I have had problems. I charged the battery pack for 3 hours as recommended by the dealer and on the first run the truck just surged repeatedly in forward but runs perfectly in reverse. I tried tweaking the adjustment on the controller but to no avail, it actually made it worse. I gave up for an hour being frustrated then went back out to try again and it took off like it was supposed to then started surging again. Now its surging in fwd and reverse. Anybody have any ideas why this is happening. This is my second Redcat truck, my first is a Groundpounder which on the advice of my hobby dealer I upgraded the battery pack to a lipo 5800 which turned out to be a death sentence to the stock motor or esc not sure which. I want to upgrade the motor and esc in this as well since they are shot. Any suggestions for that?

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

It sounds like the ESC has some problems. It may be worth trying to do the calibration procedure again (ESC calibration, not radio), but it maybe a bad ESC from the start, it does happen.

Unfortunately, and this is not exclusive to Redcat by any means, it applies to almost all RTRs, RTRs are supplied with pretty rubbish electronics, and that includes the servo too. Expect to replace the ESC and servo.

We have a dedicated Redcat forum which I'm going to move your thread to now...I'm sure someone in there will square you away.

Down with the crew known to pump up the bass...
We rock the joint at a cool, steady pace.
Foxy
RCU Community Moderator

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

ORIGINAL: kinslayer1973

Â*I just purchased a Redcat Volcano Exp Pro and straight out of the box I have had problems. I charged the battery pack for 3 hours as recommended by the dealer and on the first run the truck just surged repeatedly in forward but runs perfectly in reverse. I tried tweaking the adjustment on the controller but to no avail, it actually made it worse. I gave up for an hour being frustrated then went back out to try again and it took off like it was supposed to then started surging again. Now its surging in fwd and reverse. Anybody have any ideas why this is happening. This is my second Redcat truck, my first is a Groundpounder which on the advice of my hobby dealer I upgraded the battery pack to a lipo 5800 which turned out to be a death sentence to the stock motor or esc not sure which. I want to upgrade the motor and esc in this as well since they are shot. Any suggestions for that?Â*

It sounds like the low voltage detection (a function of the esc needed for use of lipo batteries) may be faulty. either that, or it is not calibrated to the radio right. I would try recalibrating it.
see my video below.
After that, I would check the function of the radio. You could pull the reciever out of your groundpounder to see if your volcano radio is the issue.
If neither of those sets solve the problem, then it is the ESC. Redcat will replace it if you fill out the warrenty form on their website.

As for replacement gear...plenty of options.
Traxxas vxl system
Team associated SC450 ESC/reedy motor
Ezrun/hobbywing 60amp system.
Most any 1/10 scale system with a motor that has a 3300-3900kv motor will work.

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

Are you charging the battery with the factory supplied wall charger? If you are, three hours sounds a little short to fully charge your battery. Your low voltage cutoff may just be activating because the battery is low to begin with.

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

Just a thought.....make sure each of the connectors to the motor are nice and tight. If one fits loosely, it'll cause the motor to surge or stutter. Might run fine for a bit, then start acting up. I found one of the bullet connectors on the motor wasn't very solid. After giving it a slight crimp, it solved the problem.

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

Thank you for all the help. I'm going to try the calibration again. Hopefully it works, but if not I will just upgrade all the electronics on both my trucks. Somebody mentioned the possibility that I'm not charging my battery correctly. I have the stock charger so there really isnt any indicator that I can find to show when its fully charged. The three hours I went by was suggested by the hobby dealer, but then again he is also the one that said I could put the 5800 lipo battery in my groundpounder with no problem. If the battery is under charged on the first time is that battery going to be short lived from now on. I heard that the nimhd battery has a memory for that.

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

ORIGINAL: kinslayer1973

Thank you for all the help. I'm going to try the calibration again. Hopefully it works, but if not I will just upgrade all the electronics on both my trucks. Somebody mentioned the possibility that I'm not charging my battery correctly. I have the stock charger so there really isnt any indicator that I can find to show when its fully charged. The three hours I went by was suggested by the hobby dealer, but then again he is also the one that said I could put the 5800 lipo battery in my groundpounder with no problem. If the battery is under charged on the first time is that battery going to be short lived from now on. I heard that the nimhd battery has a memory for that.Â*

You can probably get a better answer from Nitrosports since he's all about the electric stuff, but I thought it took 6-8 hours to charge the stock battery with the stock wall charger. It's just one of those things that almost has to replaced right away. You can pick up a decent charger for less than around $40 that will charge your battery in an hour.

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

ORIGINAL: Dads like rc too

ORIGINAL: kinslayer1973

Thank you for all the help. I'm going to try the calibration again. Hopefully it works, but if not I will just upgrade all the electronics on both my trucks. Somebody mentioned the possibility that I'm not charging my battery correctly. I have the stock charger so there really isnt any indicator that I can find to show when its fully charged. The three hours I went by was suggested by the hobby dealer, but then again he is also the one that said I could put the 5800 lipo battery in my groundpounder with no problem. If the battery is under charged on the first time is that battery going to be short lived from now on. I heard that the nimhd battery has a memory for that.Â*

You can probably get a better answer from Nitrosports since he's all about the electric stuff, but I thought it took 6-8 hours to charge the stock battery with the stock wall charger. It's just one of those things that almost has to replaced right away. You can pick up a decent charger for less than around $40 that will charge your battery in an hour.

another thing that goes along with this is that people have gotten defective stock chargers before. I recently got a tamiya tamtech who's stock charger (has a LED) stays red even if its plugged in over night. And the battery never gets charged.
Slapped it on my Thunder AC6 and problem solved.
These stock "brick" chargers are soo low tech, even IF they are working you cant trust them to put 100% charge into your battery.

Kinslayer, before you change out your electronics, please try either a totally different battery (maybe a friend has one you can try?) or a better charger. Even if you do end up chaging the electronics a better charger will be better anyway. My Thunder AC6 was $50 and can charge that stock NIMH in under an hour.

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

Also, since you recallibrated and made it worse, there is obviously still a callibration issue (the reverse callibration didn't take by the sound of it). You need to keep doing this until you get it right again unfortunately.

Down with the crew known to pump up the bass...
We rock the joint at a cool, steady pace.
Foxy
RCU Community Moderator

RE: Please help, was told electric was a good way to go for a beginner

Thanks again ya'll. I re-calibrated again and charged the battery for 7 hours and that seemed to work. It still glitches every now and then while its running but at least its running lol. If it starts acting up I let off the throttle a little and ease back into it and it takes off again.